Much of the cost of operating a golf course is attributable to the expense involved in planting, maintaining and grooming the turf of golf greens. In geographic regions which experience harsh winters considerable time, effort and resources may be required to repair portions of turf killed off by freezing, desiccation, and damage from animals grazing or scavenging for food. In order to reduce off season turf damage and to shorten the time required to prepare golf courses for use at the beginning of a new playing season, many course operators use turf covers to protect greens during the off season. There are many benefits to using turf covers including reduction of winter kill, preventing animal damage, maintaining less extreme ground temperatures, reducing fertilizer evaporation, and promoting healthy plant roots and earlier turf green up. The turf covers used on the greens are made of a breathable fabric that allows for sun and water infiltration while keeping the surface under the tarp warmer than the air above it. By necessity turf covers are expansive, taking the form of strips or sheets of tarp covering thousands of square feet of area. The tarps are laid and secured to cover the turf in the fall and then removed in early spring at the beginning of the growing season.
It is extremely difficult to remove soiled greens covers (tarps) in early spring for a number of reasons. First, the timing of tarp removal is always during the spring melt. The weather can range from cold and sunny to cool and raining. Conditions are not favorable for outdoor work. The ground may be soft and muddy. The tarps are usually wet, heavy and soiled. In order to remove the tarp covering, the tarps have typically been folded and rolled manually much like a sleeping blanket is rolled up. The work is awkward, dirty and very labour intensive, which makes it expensive. It is difficult to motivate a seasonal work force to return to work in later winter or early spring to remove these covers.
There is a need for a device which can mechanize the tarp removal process, particularly the steps of uptake and rolling of the tarps after they have been folded into strips, and the transport of rolled tarps to storage facilities. There is a need for a device which can both remove water from the tarps and roll them up into a compact roll. Since the work of deploying and removing tarps from golf greens or other turf surfaces occurs outdoors and on site, there is a need for a device which is rugged and yet easy to operate. It should be a simple matter to remove rolled tarps from the device with a minimum of workers' physical exertion.